Rise from the Ashes - Reincarnation
by Acidika
Summary: A young girl finds inner healing when she uses her late brother's laptop while in the hospital after a devestating fire. She plays his Warframe game, and masters using the very thing that changed her life with the Ember Warframe. Rated T for language and violence.
1. Chapter 1

Fire.

In mythology, the immortal phoenix controlled sacred flames, a majestic creation that was reborn from it's own spontaneous combustion.

But Amy was not a phoenix.

She was an ordinary 14 year old girl, small in stature, very cute, and always happy.

So, on an ordinary saturday, Amy did something she rarely ever did. She asked her brother, Kevin, to play on his laptop.

"Yeah, sure, I'll go get it." Kevin replied, getting out of his seat on the couch to retrieve his computer. He returned a few minutes later, and handed over the usual mess of cords; the charger, his mouse and headphones. "Don't forget to keep it plugged in."

Amy collected everything and sauntered to the living room's armchair, setting up everything and placing the headphones on her head.

Later, Kevin informed her that he'd be going to his friend's place later, so he wanted his computer back then. Amy gave a nod, and returned to playing one of his numerous games.

When he finally gave her the last call, she pouted before shutting everything down, unplugging his computer and returning it to him. He shoved everything into his backpack and heard their parents calling his name.

"Be right there!" He called, zipping up his backpack with the computer inside. He placed it beside Amy's armchair, then left.

Amy reached for the TV remote on the nearby endtable, ready to start watching TV when Kevin came back and said. "Mom and Dad need me to drive them to the store, their truck's not starting. Keep an eye on my computer until I get back. Won't be long."

"Okay, I got it." Amy replied, leaning over the side of the armchair to check where he'd placed it.

Kevin left, pulling his car keys out of his pocket as he walked down the hall. But before he could open the door, there was a crashing sound, then a massive explosion from outside, and the door was destroyed, pieces flying towards him as intense flames entered the house.

Kevin barely had time to dodge the broken door, but he had no chance at all of surviving when a flaming car came right through the wall, killing him almost instantly.

Amy immediately grabbed the first thing she could reach, which was Kevin's backpack. But as she ran for the back door, the flames suddenly engulfed her body, drawing out a scream of pure agony, her skin scarring and melting almost instantly. He clothes burned and fused with her melting skin, further increasing her agony as she hugged the backpack against her unharmed stomach.

She was in tears, her vision and lungs filling with the smoke of the flames, but her grip on the backpack never relaxed. Slowly, painfully, she started to inch herself towards the sliding glass doors ahead of her.

The sound of sirens faintly reached her ears, barely audible over the roar of the flames around her. She ignored them, crawling as carefully as she could to minimize the pain she was in.

As she reached the glass doors, the rising heat suddenly shattered them, covering her with glass shards and even more pain.

Suddenly a pair of arms wrapped around her, illiciting a gasp, then a wail of pure suffering before she blacked out from the pain. 


	2. Chapter 2

Dead.

Kevin was dead, flattened by the car that crashed through her house.

Her parents? The doctors told her that the car that killed Kevin had first slammed into his car with her parents inside, which caused the initial explosion, which then lead to the raging fire that injured her.

Speaking of which, she was lucky to be such a small girl, otherwise she would have been a larger target, and thus been more badly burned.

Third degree burns to over two thirds of her body, mostly on her back, legs and right arm. Part of her face had also been burned, so much so that her right eye was unable to even open enough for her to see. So, at the recommendation of one of the younger, more humourous doctors, she wore a black eyepatch over her right eye, since, in his words, "It was almost useless anyway."

The catastrophe was six months ago...

Even during her transportation to the hospital, the paramedics knew that the backpack she held was the last surviving piece of what happened. Even the doctors that had treated her were forced to tears when she cried miserably at the attempted removal of her grip.

In that time, she never let anyone near it, nor touch it. It was also the only way for the night nurses to calm her down after she had recurring nightmares about the fire. The backpack served as a safety blanket or teddy bear to her, silencing her sobs and lulling her to sleep, hugging the backpack in the exact same way she'd done to survive the flames.

One day, a visitor she wasn't expecting came to visit; a representative for a private school offering medical support for youth with various disabilities.

"What's the point? I'm not disabled." Amy glared at the suited man with her good eye, her precious backpack placed on her lap with her arms wrapped around it protectively.

"Sadly I must disagree. From the reports I've received in the past few weeks, it appears you've suffered a traumatic experience coupled with a severe and permanent injury. I'd say it's a life changing event. The school, though still a functioning institution of education, is staffed with medical personnel to ensure you recover well."

"If I'm supposed to be recovering, then shouldn't I be here in a hospital?" Amy continued to glare, her eye narrowing slightly.

"Recovery can happen in places other than a hospital." He replied. "Now, not going into particulars... There is another student at the school, a severe burn victim, like you. They're recovering quite well, both physically and psycholgically." He paused to consider his next words. "Would you at least consider it? I was simply asked to convince you to join the school."

"I'll consider it." Amy gave a single nod of her head, her tone making it obvious that the conversation was over.

"Thank you. Now, I'll give you my card, in case you ever need to contact me." He handed over a small business card, which she took without a word. "Have a good day."

With that, he left her room, closing the door behind him. Amy glanced at the card, then place it on the small shelf beside her bed.

Glancing at the clock on the wall, Amy bit her lip, thinking hard. She compared the pros and cons of attending this school, her fingers gently tapping the backpack in her arms. After several minutes, she made a snap decision.

Opening the backpack for the first time since the fire, she began to pull out her brother's laptop and everything it needed. Within mere moments, she had plugged everything in, and turned it on for the first time in six months.

After the normal startup process, she was met with her brother's desktop, a screenshot he took from one of his games, showing a beautiful forest landscape.

Examining the game icons on screen, Amy's gaze was locked onto one particular game, entitled Warframe.

Clicking the icon, Amy waited for the game to start, her good eye watching the progress bar. When it finished, a drum beat sounded in the headphones, indicating that it was ready. She clicked Play, and was met with a login screen.

At the realization she didn't know his password, she froze for a moment. This game had caught her attention, yet she was unable to play it!

But after a moment, the game seemed to automatically log in, rendering the need for a password useless. She was immediately met with a character that appeared to be wearing a strange set of armour, resembling a red lobster.

Tentatively controlling the character's movements, Amy realized that she was currently inside a small spaceship. She approached a ramp, descending into another room.

On the left of her character was a strange creature, slightly resembling a gray dog with long ears. Directly ahead of her was a strange looking machine. She approached the machine, and pressed the Interact button.

With a new screen activating, she realized she had entered the feature called the Arsenal. Amy perused the selected stuff her brother had last used: Trinity, Paris Prime, Bronco Prime, Dakra Prime, Dethcube, and Deth Machine Rifle.

None of the items seemed familiar, so she hovered her mouse cursor over Trinity, and a small list of options appeared; Equip, Upgrade, Appearance.

Clicking Equip, a new list appeared, replacing all of the other items. Several characters appeared; Ember, Loki, Trinity, Nyx, Vauban, Nekros, Mirage, Rhino, Saryn, Valkyr, Excalibur, Ash, Mag, Frost, Oberon, Volt, Zephyr, Banshee, Nova, and Hydroid.

Scrolling down the list, several additional characters appeared: Excalibur Prime, Frost Prime, Mag Prime, Rhino Prime, Loki Prime.

Confusion crossed her face at the odd suffix, Prime. Was it an upgraded version of those characters? She noticed that every single character was at Rank 30. Maybe that's max level?

Selecting the first one that caught her eye, Valkyr, she clicked Equip, and then Trinity vanished, replaced with an orange and grey female character with a strange set of metal armour on her arms and a matching collar on her head.

Scanning Valkyr's stats on the side of the screen, Amy realized that Valkyr was somewhat weird: low Shields, very high Armour, and pretty good Health. She remembered Kevin talking to a gamer friend on the phone, saying "Valkyr's an HP based tank, but she's quite hard to learn."

Selecting another character, the non-Prime Excalibur, she noticed that Excalibur was very... average. Decent Shields and Health, but low Armour.

Equipping Excalibur in place of Valkyr, Amy moved down to the Paris Prime, which appeared to be a bow in Excalibur's hands. Amy thought that the bow highly resembled a golden banana.

Doing the same thing as before, Amy selected Equip, and was met with a huge list of weapons, a few of which were the strange Prime versions: Braton, Latron, Boar, Paris, Boltor.

Two other strange suffixes caught her eye as well, Wraith and Vandal. The ones with Wraith were Latron, Gorgon, and Strun. Vandal was Braton and Snipertron.

Scrolling through the list of weapons, Amy recognized a few scattered ones from Kevin's phone chats with the friend. Phage, "Super high D.P.S shotgun." Soma, "The Crit King." and Vectis, "Bolt action badass sniper."

Deciding to equip the standard Braton, Amy scanned for the weapon, but noticed there was an identical one, the MK-1 Braton.

Noticing that it was the weaker one, Amy selected the actual Braton instead.

Next, she replaced the equipped Bronco Prime, scanning through numerous Prime, Wraith, Vandal, and a new one, this time a prefix, Dex.

Dex Furis, a strange pair of pistols that were apparently from an event.

Nodding her head at his Dex Furis, she decided to try the standard version of the Lato pistol, which also had a Prime and a Vandal version, plus the Aklato, which was dual wielded Lato's.

Finally changing the Dakra Prime, Amy was met with even more weapons than before, many Primes, a few Wraith, a Vandal, and finally two others that caught her attention; Sylvia & Aegis, and the Dragon Nikana.

Sylvia & Aegis was a sword and shield weapon made of fire, and the Dragon Nikana - the prefix Dragon was the reason it caught her eye - was a very powerful katana.

Deciding not to use such powerful weapons so early in her gaming experience, she selected the standard Skana, a single sword that slightly resembled a sewing needle in her opinion.

Finally, she realized that Dethcube was a small floating cube beside the Arsenal. She removed it from her equipped items, unsure of what it did.

Satisfied with her final selection, Amy made Excalibur wander around the ship, learning the various other functions at her disposal, including the strange dog from earlier, which was called a Kubrow.

Returning up the ramp, Amy realized that there was a mission selection function, so she activated it, searching for the lowest level planet to begin playing. Apparently Mercury was the lowest, so she selected a mission called Terminus, ready to begin her first mission.

A/N: For reference, Kevin owned EVERYTHING in Warframe, with one single exception... Check back to the Primes, then guess which one is missing ;) 


	3. Chapter 3

An Excalibur Warframe dropped down from a ventilation shaft, armed with a Braton rifle, Lato pistol, and a single Skana.

Glancing to each side, he began to slowly walk across the corridor, listening to the sound of an approaching Grineer Lancer.

Drawing the Skana from his back, he prepared to strike the Lancer as it came through the door beside him.

He struck the Lancer's throat with a fluid slice, causing it to grasp at its neck before dying.

Quickly entering the door, the Excalibur make quick work of the next Lancer, stealthily continuing through the facility until he reached a large open room.

Noticing that there were now Troopers and Butchers mixed in the wandering Lancers, the Excalibur readied his Braton, then began to attack in a more aggressive manner than before.

Taking down four Lancers in mere moments with a well placed Slash Dash, the Excalibur slid on his knees to some cover as Lancers and Troopers began firing at him. Occasionally a bullet struck his Void shield, but nothing damaging hit him when compared to the carnage he himself was causing.

Barely a minute since switching tactics, the entire room was cleared. The Excalibur reloaded his Braton, then continued with his Exterminate mission.

When he killed the final Lancer, a voice spoke up in his ear, the voice of the Lotus.

"That was the last of them. Extraction is availible."

Calmly walking to the extraction point, the Excalibur climbed into the awaiting pod of his Liset ship, which then detached from the Grineer ship and flew away.

Amy read her mission report with a smile. She'd completed her mission without a single death, and only took minor damage throughout.

Closing the report, Amy decided to try another character, and switched to trying Ember.

Noticing that Ember was female, like Valkyr and Trinity, Amy was instantly drawn to how Ember looked, her colours vastly different from her icon. It seemed that Kevin had customized her appearance, plus added something called an Immortal Skin to her.

Changing to the Ignis and the Dex Furis, Amy decided to also try the Sylvia & Aegis, since Ember was fire based.

Returning to the Solar Map with her new weapons, Amy searched for a new mission, since Terminus was extremely easy to complete. She found one type of mission called a Dark Sector Defence, located on Earth, which was about seven levels higher than Terminus, plus it was against Infestation, whatever that was... it sounded... scary.

Dropping from the Liset onto a flat platform, the Ember readied her Ignis flamethrower and approached the tunnel that lead to the discovered Cyropod. She scanned the residue left behind by the residing Infestation in the area. This was going to be fun.

Entering a clearing, the Ember located the cyropod in the center of the grass, unearthed by various diggers and drills scattered about.

The moment she approached though, there was the sound of thudding footfalls, screeching and growling. She readied her Ignis as an Infested Charger came into view, quickly followed by dozens more.

With a whoosh, her Ignis ignited and started to burn the mindless abominations before they could reach her slumbering brethren in the pod.

As they screamed and died, more and more flooded into the clearing from all sides, no longer solely Chargers, but here and there were Runners and Leapers as well.

Reloading a fresh fuel tank into her Ignis, the Ember threw a Fireball at each entry point to buy herself a few seconds to finish reloading.

Suddenly there was a new screech rending through the air, certainly not from a Charger or even a Leaper...

it was an Ancient.

With a slow lumbering gait, the Toxic Ancient towered over the shifting mass of Chargers, Leapers and Runners. Ember hurled a Fireblast at it, backing away as far as she could to prepare herself for another attack.

Over the horde, she spotted two more Ancients, one Disruptor, the other another Toxic. This was getting bad.

Suddenly a Leaper jumped at her, knocking her down and pinning her to the ground with its weight. She was immediately swarmed by Chargers and Runners, her Void shield was destroyed in mere seconds under their constant claw attacks.

Drawing Sylvia from inside Aegis, she slashed a path through their shifting bodies, then sprang to her feet, sweeping the flames of the last fuel tank for her Ignis back and forth a few times to control their advance, returning to her defensive position at the pod.

The three Ancients were now within range of her attacks, so with a roar of flames, Ember activated World on Fire, incinerating absolutely all of the Infestation in the clearing, just as a Tenno ship flew overhead, shining a searchlight around the clearing as she waved up to them.

"Tenno, reinforcements are availible, you can leave, or stay and fight. Your choice." The Lotus spoke in her ear, barely audible over the roaring flames from World on Fire.

With a nod, Ember decided to extract, she had no remaining fuel tanks for her Ignis, and she was heavily wounded from being swarmed. She gave another nod, then her Liset flew down from above the support ship, extracting her to safety.

Amy felt her heart hammering in her chest, trying to calm herself after the near fatal swarming she'd taken. Defending the cyropod didn't feel like it was for five waves, but she somehow managed to survive.

Deciding to stop playing Warframe for a while, Amy shut the game down after she had returned to her ship. She closed the laptop screen, and closed her eye for a moment to review her experience so far.

Excalibur, the average joe character, didn't particularily suit her. He was just... average. He had only two damaging abilities, another was a useless stun, and the last was just a high jump. It wasn't very useful for her to just stun, jump, and dash.

Ember on the other hand, was fire based. she threw fireballs, increased any Fire damage she dealt, had a medium sized fire bomb, and a huge wave of fire. She was all about attacking, despite her average stats for Health and Shields.

As for her weapons, the Braton was just a machine gun, nothing particularily special. Lato was weak, but quite accurate. The Skana - though weak - was easy to pick up and learn.

The Ignis, a short ranged flamethrower, was great for the small area of that Dark Sector Defence, decimating the Infested with ease.

During that mission, she'd forgotten about the Dex Furis, so she was yet to try them out.

Finally, Sylvia & Aegis was quite strong, and were quite beautiful in their designs. She liked them quite a bit.

Suddenly Amy realized she was staring out of the window of her Liset ship, the expanse of Earth stretching before her eyes.

Why am I in my ship? Amy thought, standing up from her kneeling pose on the floor. She turned her gaze to the right, and descended the ramp that lead to her Arsenal and her Kubrow Incubator.

Approaching the Kubrow for the first time, Amy gave it a gentle pat on the head.

Barking in a cherry way, the Kubrow panted up at her, seemingly excited by her attentions.

Turning her attention to the Arsenal, she stepped into the machine, and felt an unnoticed weight vanish from her back and legs.

The mental image of her Dex Furis and Ignis came to the forefront of her mind, so she decided that she was finished with the Arsenal for now. She stepped out and returned to the upper area of her Liset.

Examining the view of Earth, Amy blinked a few times as her vision faded to darkness. She scanned the blackness, searching for any light, but she saw nothing...

With a roar, Amy was engulfed by searing flames. She immediately fell to her knees, curling herself into a ball instinctively, her arms wrapping around an object held against her chest.

Fighting to see through the smoke and her tears, Amy saw a flaming car hurtling directly towards her paralyzed form, unable to evade.

"Amy! Amy, it's okay! Calm down!"

A voice reached her ears, sounding concerned and fearful. Amy struggled to move, unable to dodge the car just as it collided with her prone form. 


	4. Chapter 4

With a scream rising in her throat, Amy thrashed around, struggling to escape from the flaming car. She opened her eyes, still screaming in terror, only to realize she wasn't aboard her Liset. She was still in her hospital bed, Kevin's laptop resting beside her on the bedside table.

"Amy, can you hear me? Amy!" A nurse was trying to calm her down, having been there mere moments before she'd started screaming in her sleep.

Taking a deep breath, Amy's tear streaked face gradually relaxed, her breathing heavy. She reached up to her right eye, feeling for her eyepatch. She must have fallen asleep and had a nightmare about the fire.

"Are you sure you're alright, Amy? I was checking in on you just before you started screaming in your sleep." The nurse explained as Amy examined her surroundings, still breathing hard.

"Just a nightmare, I'm fine." Amy slowly lowered her hand, reaching towards her computer with the other. "I'll be alright."

"Was it from the fire... or what you had on that computer? It looked like a video game." The nurse watched Amy's proficient knowledge of the computer's various cords and accessories.

"At first it was the game, but then it changed to the fire." Amy explained, opening Warframe's active tab, realizing that she'd left the game running before falling asleep... or did she pass out?

"Well, as long as you're feeling alright, I'll leave you be. Goodnight, Amy." The nurse bustled out of her room, closing the door behind herself with a small click.

Amy sighed, examining her shaking hands curiously. Before she started playing, her hands were steady. Maybe it was from the adrenaline from playing the intense Dark Sector Defence...

Wait a second...

Amy stared past her shaking hands, feeling a strange weightlessness on her left arm. It felt like something had been... attached... mounted to her arm.

"Aegis..." Amy whispered, reaching her right arm towards her left, and grasped the air above her wrist with a strange familiarity. "Sylvia..."

Lowering her arms, Amy remembered the Liset portion of her dream, the strange weight on her legs and back.

Realization came cascading into her mind, she could almost feel the weight of the weapons she'd used during the Dark Sector Defence mission! Ignis, carried on her back, Dex Furis, on her legs, and Sylvia & Aegis, on her left arm! She had been fighting the Infested during the mission! She was...

"Ember." Amy's eyes widened in shock, fear, and confusion. "I... was... I was Ember!"

In the corner of the laptop screen, Amy spotted a blinking tab, signalling a message. She clicked it, then raised an eyebrow.

'I just got her Chassis! Now all I need for Ember Prime is her Systems! Thanks for the mission invite, dude!'

Amy knew she'd fallen asleep, so she clearly wasn't the person they thought she was. But before she could begin to type a reply, the person added another message. 'Oops, sorry about that! Meant to send that to a different person!'

Amy quickly typed, 'No problem, accidents happen. Also, congradulations!'

Amy pressed Send, and waited for a reply. Moments later, she received a simple 'thanks!' from the other player.

Since there was no further continuation to their conversation, Amy was about to close the chat tab when she realized something strange.

"Ember Prime...?" Amy read the initial message sent by the player. "Ember has that?"

Quickly closing Warframe down, Amy brought up her browser, and searched for 'Warframe, Ember Prime.'

Clicking the first result, she was greeted by an information profile detailing Ember Prime. Though visually she was differently designed, most of her stats were still the same as the regular Ember, but she did have a different upgrade layout and faster Shield regeneration.

Amy thought about the differences between them for several seconds, then decided to figure out a way to acquire Ember Prime.

A few minutes of reading the profile revealed that Ember Prime was comprised of four pieces; The Blueprint, Helmet, Chassis and Systems. She decided to begin her task in the morning, since she wasn't scheduled for any tests or therapy.

Closing the screen, Amy placed it aside, then laid down to sleep.

"Amy..."

A voice awoke her from her slumber, calling out as if from a long distance.

Opening her eye, Amy sighed when she realized she was standing back aboard her Liset again, her Kubrow seated before her with a dopey expression.

"Amy... Can you hear me?" The voice repeated, which Amy realized was coming from behind her. She turned her head to see a slightly transparent Warframe standing in front of her...

Ember Prime.

"Child, you have grown so strong. I am proud of you." The ghostly Warframe held her palm to her chest, the other relaxed against her side.

"Child? What do you mean?" Amy felt a strange sense of caution. Something was strange about this apparition, so she was on edge.

"You wear the Ember Warframe, but I know my own daughter when I see her. Your brother, Kevin, he wore the Ash Warframe before he was lost in battle to the Grineer."

"Then what about my father? What happened to him?" Amy's eye narrowed suspiciously, watching the apparition for any minute reactive changes to her question.

"The last I heard of him, he was alive..." The Ember Prime tilted her head very slightly to the side before finishing her sentence. "But that was several months ago. Not even the Lotus seems to know of his location."

Amy's mind was suddenly filled by the echo of clashing blades and the distinctive shrieks of the Infested. A single Frost Warframe, wielding the mighty Galatine was fending off horde after horde of Chargers, Leapers and Runners.

"I may know where he is... But I must know the Warframe he wears and the blade he wields." Amy took a small step forward, clenching her fists together.

"Frost and the Galatine. His other weapons of choice were the Tigris and Akvastos, and he uses the Dethcube Sentinel."

"I may know where he is..." Amy glanced out of the Liset's window before facing the Ember Prime again. "He's fighting the Infested... Somewhere out of the range of the Lotus..."

Before she could finish her sentence, the Ember Prime suddenly spoke up in a spine tingling voice.

"Orokin Derelict." 


End file.
